Panamas open secret bribery
IN SPITE of the Odebrecht construction giant’s confession of having paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Latin American politicians and officials, so far, of the countries involved, in addition to Brazil, only Colombia has acted by naming recipients and making arrests.
Two alleged offenders , the ex-Minister of Transportation Gabriel García Morales and the ex-senator Otto Nicolás Bula Bulla are in detention and other arrests are pending.
In Brazil, the origin of the international scandal, Odebrecht’s owner and former president, Marcelo Odebrecht, is in prison sentenced to 19 years behind bars.
He is one of the many executives of his company country, who have been tried and convicted of paying bribes in Brazil, where political responsibilities have also been identified at the highest level, reports the EFE news agency.
The recent statement by Panama’s vice president and Foreign Minister, Isabel de Saint Malo, is symptomatic, saying that Odrebrecht’s bribes were “an open secret “in a country, where the Brazilian company has received over $9 billion in contracts,
The Panamanian authorities did not open a formal investigation into the “open secrets” until the US Department of Justice revealed on December 21 the economic outreach and destination of bribes totaling $788 million between Latin America and Africa.
During the two and a half years of the current administration of President Juan Carlos Varela, Odebrecht has won two tenders in Panama, Metro Line 2 in partnership with the Spanish FCC, and to build 5,000 homes and restore the historic center in the city of Colón.
It also received a near $200,000 contract from the city’s mayor for a street project, and was at one time on the bid list for projects totaling $2 billion.
The data revealed by the US, which Odebrecht has accepted and for which it has agreed to pay a fine of about $ 3.5 billion, literally refer to “government officials and intermediaries” as recipients of the bribes in question.
The main Latin American countries involved from at least 2003 to 2016, in addition to Brazil, are Panama, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Guatemala.
In all these countries, investigations have been opened, unprecedented measures against Odebrecht have been announced, in addition to announcing, in some cases, as in Peru, that the company will no longer be able to participate in more tenders, but Justice has not charged anyone, Except in Brazil and Colombia.
Panama says that four “very high profile” people have had their Swiss bank accounts seized, but no names have been revealed.
Many of those believed to have been involved have fled the country. With various instances of the State involved in the bidding process in these countries, it is difficult to accept that only one or two persons in each case are the recipients of bribes.
It is also difficult to accept says EFE news agency, that Odebrecht is the only company that has paid bribes, to win tenders in the countries in which it operates
In the US, where Odebrecht has been charged with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because it operates in US territory, the case is still open and its development could eventually reveal the names of the alleged individuals and institutions that received the bribes.
USA Opened this case and revealed its complex and devastating results with surprising celerity when Odebrecht signed at the end of last year an agreement with the Brazilian Justice to accept its involvement in bribes in that country and collaborate to know its full scope .
One of the purposes of the Brazilian multinational in signing this agreement can be assumed to be to get at freedom in a second instance trial of its owner, Marcelo Odebrecht.
